Patent property of suicide gene therapy involving prodrugs 1996-1999

Suicide gene therapy can be defined as a two-step treatment for solid rumou rs. In the first step, specific gene delivery technology leads to the expre ssion of a foreign prodrug-activating enzyme only in tumour cells. During t he second step, a non-toxic prodrug is administered which is converted by t he expressed enzyme to a potent cytotoxic agent. The patent literature cove ring new gene-directed enzyme prodrug therapy (GDEPT) systems, improvements to GDEPT systems and improved delivery for suicide gene therapy, is discus sed.